Continuing from http://www.librarything.com/topic/44507

The rules are easy - a line or passage is given from one of Agatha Christie's stories. After somebody correctly identifies which story it is from, they post the next quotation.

Here is the next line:
"He bowed.
He shook hands ceremoniously.
There was something in his eye that was unusual. One would have said that this chance encounter awakened in him an emotion that he seldom had occasion to feel."

Noone is around or simply noone has an idea where the sentences are from?

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, sie 26, 2009, 4:52pm.

It isn't ringing a bell for me, but I've only read about half of A.C.'S books. Don't worry, someone will get it.

I'll give it a few days and post a better clue but for now - it's one of the novels.

A clue: one of the Hercule Poirot novels

It's not ringing any bells with me, but I'll make a wild guess so Annie doesn't feel ignored. :)

Cat Among the Pigeons ????

Annie felt very ignored :(
But nope -- it's not this one...

OK... another clue - the number of the detectives is the same as the number of the suspects and is the same as the number of something else which is kinda important in the novel (or at least its name).

Nope... No number in the title - not directly anyway - one of the things in the title has the same number of options as is the number of the other 2 (the number of detectives and the number of suspects) (and option is not the correct word here but I do not know how to say it otherwise). :)

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, wrz 1, 2009, 1:48pm.

Ha, I had my suspicions, Cards on the Table? with the Mephistopheles? ;)

Yep :)
4 detectives, 4 suspects, 4 colors in the cards :) Your turn.

I have to try to remember to place a clue this evening when I get home.

Ha! I remembered on the same day!

Quote

"Quite so. Why? I admire you economy of speech. This is a private committee--a committee of inquiry. An inquiry of worldwide significance."

is it still early or should I give another hint?

I cannot place it at all even though it sounds really familiar... I keep thinking Evil Under the Sun for some reason but I am almost sure that is not it... So I would like a clue if possible.

a little hint,
It came from what I consider to be her worst novel.

A wild guess: The Big Four? Because of the worldwide significance...

nope, none of the 'detectives' are in it. Also it was much worse than the Big Four. but good guess though.

No detective, worldwide... Passenger to Frankfurt?

yep, don't know what she was thinking when she wrote that one.

:) Well - it's goofy and all but it has its charm... mainly showing how not to write this type of book :)

Next one:

"How are you, old boy?"
He smiled patiently at me. "I exist, my friend, I still exist."
"Not in pain?"
"No - just tired - " he sighed - "very tired."

Curtain?

Yes. your turn.

"I ought to have been killed," she said with complacency. "I told you it was about time for the second murder. The cistern was a rotten place to hide those letters. I guessed at once when I saw ----- coming out of there one day. I mean he's not a useful kind of man who does things with ball taps or pipes or fuses, so I knew he must have been hiding something."

I knew it was too easy :)

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, wrz 4, 2009, 12:11pm.

Ack! now I need to wait until I'm home again to post another.

ping :)

Sorry, I thought about it twice this long weekend and got distracted both times before I could look up a quote. I will try again tonight.

So Annie, do you think readafew is going to have another wild weekend? ;)

I really should be more careful when I answer to that the rest of you don't have to keep waiting on me.

"This is nothing to do with cats," said ________, raising his voice. "I came to talk to you about the unfortunate affair which happened next door. You have probably heard about it."
"Next door? You mean Mr. Joshua's dog?"
"No," said ________, I do not. I mean at Number Nineteen, where a man was found murdered yesterday."

Am I allowed to jump in? I just found this thread, and am fairly certain that readafew's quote is from The Clocks.

32 > Correct, your turn.

Cool, I'll get back to you tomorrow. =)

Sorry about the delay:

"That prim Englishwoman! Do you think that I will support that for one moment? Ah, no." Her beautiful lithe body quivered. "Listen, _____, do you remember that conversation we had in London? You said the only thing that could save you was the death of your wife. You regretted that she was so healthy. Then the idea of an accident came into your brain. And more than an accident."

The Mystery of the Blue Train ?

You got it! :) Over to you.

Next one:

"Poor devils," he said as he sank down in a worn easy-chair. "So scared and so stupid - no sense. Had a painful case this evening. Woman who ought to have come to me a year ago. If she'd come then, she might have been operated on successfully. Now it's too late. Makes me mad. The truth is people are an extraordinary mixture of heroism and cowardice. She's been suffering agony, and borne it without a word, just because she was too scared to come and find out that what she feared might be true. At the other end of the scale are the people who come and waste my time because they've got a dangerous swelling causing them agony on their little finger which they think may be cancer and which turns out to be a common or garden chilblain! Well, don't mind me. I've blown off steam now. What did you want to see me about?"

Arrgh! I KNOW this, but I can't pull the title out of my rapidly shrinking brain.

I know it too! but will have to mull over the title.
Mind you, this quote reminds me of a Ngaio Marsh book too....

Is this from What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw?

It's one of those paragraphs that kinda screams Christie - and I decided not to post only part of it :)

y2pk,

Yes - 4.50 from Paddington it is. :) Your turn

I hope this suits. ;-)

"Here's our stain," said __________, indicating the mark with his foot. "Right up against the skirting board at the opposite side of the room to the writing table. Under what circumstances would a man drop a pen just there?"

"You can drop a pen anywhere," said ___________.

"You can hurl it across a room, of course," agreed _______. "But one doesn't usually treat one's pen like that. I don't know, though. Fountain pens are damned annoying things...."

Should I post a clue? or give it a while longer?

Sometimes it takes a couple of days for someone to figure it out. I thought I knew the answer, but now I'm stumped. ;)

I remember the bit about the pen, but I can't seem place it in context.

*offtopic* Moving your library is not fun */offtopic*

Three Act Tragedy ?

Yes, that's it!

Sir Charles Cartwright is acting the part of a great detective as Mr. Satterwaite observes.

Your turn.

OK, something weirder:

"There was the lady who gave such wonderful prices for castoff clothing. "Ladies' wardrobes inspected at their own dwellings." There were the gentlemen who bought anything - but principally teeth. There were ladies of title going abroad who would dispose of their furs at a ridiculous figure. There was the distressed clergyman and the hardworking widow, and the disabled officer, all needing sums varying from fifty pounds to two thousand."

Someone? A small clue: this is a short story.

I am pretty sure this is from The Golden Ball and Other Stories. "Jane in Search of a Job," perhaps?

Spot on, ninjapenguin. Your turn. :)

Spot on, ninjapenguin. Your turn. :)

Hope y'all don't mind a long one:

"Well, out with it. What's the interesting point? I suppose, like 'the incident of the dog in the nighttime' the point is that there is no interesting point?"

____ disregarded this sally on my part. He said quietly and calmly: "The interesting point is the date."

"The date?"

I picked up the letter. On the top left-hand corner was written April 17th. "Yes," I said slowly. "That is odd. April 17th."

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, wrz 28, 2009, 5:23pm.

Is this Poirot Loses A Client ? It's the story where an old lady dies and her maid finds a letter months later and mails it to Poirot.

(Corrected so that it's a letter, not Poirot, that the maid mails.) ;-)

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, wrz 28, 2009, 8:34pm.

Ding ding ding! Also known as Dumb Witness. Your turn.

"I like a good detective story," he said. "But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that - years before sometimes - with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day..."

Towards zero ?

Such a speedy answer - it took me longer than that to type it. ;-)

Correct! It's Mr. Treves in the prologue of Towards Zero.

:) Had read it at least 10 times (the first few pages I mean - every time when I reorder it). Next one:

"I slept badly that night.

I think that even then, there were pieces of the puzzle floating about in my mind. I believe that if I had given my mind to it, I would have solved the whole thing then and there. Otherwise why did those fragments tag along so persistently?

How much do we know at any time? Much more, or so I believe, than we know we know! But we cannot break through to that subterranean knowledge. It's there, but we cannot reach it."

I'm just posting a wild guess to hopefully kickstart other people into replying. The Pale Horse?

Nope. A clue: it is with one of the two main detectives.

It is from The Moving Finger. Jerry said it.

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, paź 5, 2009, 12:52pm.

Yep. Your turn.

"He felt faintly irritated with himself as he spoke. The reasons he advanced, though genuine enough, had the sound of excuses. He wondered if they sounded that way to the girl who sat opposite him. And why was she suddenly so keen to go to America?"

Sounds like The Case of the Missing Will.

No, sorry. Not from The Case of the Missing Will.

Taken at the Flood I think. Rosaleen and David at the breakfast table if I am not wrong. Or I am totally mixing up two different stories which won't be unheard of. :)

Yes, you are right. Your turn.

"Down the steep track into the village a car was coming. A car so fantastically powerful, so superlatively beautiful that it had all the nature of an apparition. At the wheel sat a young man, his hair blown back by the wind. In the blaze of the evening light he looked, not a man, but a young God, a Hero God out of some Northern Saga."

And Then There Were None aka Ten Little Indians aka Ten Little Niggers

Yep - thought that it might be easy :)but had only this book around here. All yours

"If you know a thing," he said, "it is always a great temptation to show that you know it; to talk about it, in other words. It is not that you want to give information, it is not that you have been offered payment to give information. It is that you want to show how important you are. Yes. it's just as simple as that. In fact, everything in this world is so very, very simple. That's what people don't understand."

Passenger to Frankfurt ?

(Fixing the touchstone)

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, paź 8, 2009, 4:47am.

Well done! Over to you.

"'Well, try to see things my way. There I am, looking over the corpse of a stranger. There's something looking out of his pocket. I take a look. By an amazing coincidence it is the picture of a woman I know, a married woman, a woman who doesn't seem very happy in her marriage. What's going to happen? An inquest, publicity, maybe the name of the poor woman in all the papers. In an impulse I took the picture and tore it up."

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

yes. all yours

"And how would you dispose of your enemies,____?" asked _____.
"I should be very kind," said ______ in a gently contemplative tone. "It would be more difficult, but I'd rather have it that way because I don't like hurting things. I'd use a sort of drug that gives people euthanasia. They would go to sleep and have beautiful dreams and they just wouldn't wake up."

The passage is from Hallowe'en Party. It is a coversation between Poirot and Miranda.

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, paź 9, 2009, 3:03am.

Yes! Your turn.

"He spoke rather impatiently. He was essentially a man of action. At this very moment I felt sure that he was fretting to be out and doing things- directing the search for ____'s body, or alternatively sending out parties for his capture and arrest."

Helllloooo!!! Anyone out there? Do I need to post a clue or what?

Murder in Mesopotamia? Talking about Captain Maitland if I recognize it properly.

PS: On a business trip with crappy internet so if I am right, it might take me a while to post the new one.

Yeah, it's Murder in Mesopotamia. Your turn.

That was fast so here is the next one:

"The newspapers were full of nothing else. All sorts of "clues" were reported to have been discovered. Arrests were announced to be imminent. There were photographs of every person or place remotely connected with the murder. There were interviews with any one who would give interviews. There were questions asked in Parliament."

It is from The ABC Murders.

yep. back to you

Sorry for taking so long to post the next quote. I was kind of swamped.

'Yes-the slump in pictures has hit them badly. And antique furniture too. All this modern continental stuff coming into fashion. They built new premises last year and -well- as I say, they're not far from Queer Street."

Yes. Your turn.

"In the light of the powerful torch, several clearly defined footmarks could be seen. They seemed to be those of shoes with rubber studs in the soles. One particularly clear one pointed inwards, another, slightly overlapping it, pointed outwards."

It is from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Yep. It's yours.

"It was always the same way-people would keep things back! Usually quite unimportant things, but until they were cleared out of the way, impossible to pursue a straight path."

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, paź 19, 2009, 6:18am.

Just a guess - is it The Hollow?

No. It's not from The Hollow.

I am reasonably sure it is from One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Yes. It is from One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. Your turn.

Sorry, this was a double post.

Wiadomość zmieniona przez autora, lis 5, 2009, 8:03am.

(traveling so might be a bit slow to answer)

"We needn't take very many people - not at first. It's an easy house to run - it's got hot and cold water in the bedrooms and central heating and a gas cooker. And we can have hens and ducks and our own eggs, and vegetables."
"Who'd do all the work - isn't it very hard to get servants?"
"Oh, we'd have to do the work. But wherever we lived we'd have to do that. A few extra people wouldn't really mean much more to do. We'd probably get a woman to come in after a bit when we got properly started. If we had only five people, each paying seven guineas a week -"

The mouse trap?

That would be a yes and no - the right direction, the wrong work. :)

Three Blind Mice?

Yep - the short story. Your turn

"Arsenic in a cup pf tea-a box of poisoned chocolates-a knife-even a pistol-but strangulation-no! It is a man we have to look for."

It is from Evil Under the Sun. One of my favorite Poirot mysteries!

You're right! Your turn.

"On the morning after my arrival our host showed us all over the place. The house itself was unremarkable, a good solid house built of Devonshire granite. Built to withstand time and exposure. It was unromantic but very comfortable. From the windows of it one looked out over the panorama of the moor, vast rolling hills crowned with weather-beaten tors."

The Idol House of Astarte from The Thirteen Problems/The Tuesday Club Murders collection I think.

You beat me to it!

You are right, AnnieMod. Your turn.

"My dear, you can't be of any use down here. You're known - very well known by now. You've announced that you're going - what can you do? You can't stay on at Merroway. You can't come and stay at the Anglers' Arms. You'd set every tongue in the neighbourhood wagging. No, you must go. "

Could it be 'Why didn't they ask Evans'? It was the first of her stories that I ever read.

By-the-way, are the quotes allowed to come from films, or the TV series?

#114 Oh no please don't do that! I never watch any of the movies or TV shows. In fact I absolutely hate those TV shows! It would really ruin things for me. I mean you guys can do it if you want to but I would really, really appreciate it if you didn't!

>114
Yep, that's it.

Please - no films and tv series :( But you can ask for strange short stories.

Porua,

The Poirot series (the one with David Suchet) is actually quite good. The Miss Marple ones are strange although I like some of the episodes.

#116 Yes, some of the Suchet ones are pretty good and don't mess around with the stories too much, but I just want to destroy the Marple series!

Have you seen the older Miss Marple series starring Joan Hickson? I don't care for any of the other Marple series, but these were quite good, I think. Faithful to the book storylines - and they only adapted stories that really were Marples in print.

Sorry to hijack the topic! I await the next clue. ;-)

No worries. Here's one from a book.

'"...one name's as good as another. A rose by any other name would small as sweet. Juliet said that, didn't she? Silly things sometimes Shakespeare made them say. Of course, he couldn't help it, he was a poet. Never cared much for Romeo and Juliet myself."'

Postern of Fate...

You were quick! Well done.

It's your go.

How about

"Arsenic in the soup?" suggested ***** cheerfully. "Cosh them on the head--Push them down the staircase---?"

By the pricking of my thumbs? Although I think that the arsenic was not in the soup but in the tea or something like this, but that's Tommy for sure :)

Indeed it is. Your turn.

Oops - forgot to post:

"She was a tall woman, and for a singer not unduly fat. Her arms and legs were still slender, and her neck was a beautiful column. Her hair, which was coiled in a great roll halfway down her neck, was of a dark, glowing red. If it owed some at least of its colour to henna, the result was none the less effective. She was not a young woman, forty at least, but the lines of her face were still lovely, though the skin was loosened and wrinkled round the flashing, dark eyes. She had the laugh of a child, the digestion of an ostrich, and the temper of a fiend, and she was acknowledged to be the greatest dramatic soprano of her day. "

Listerdale Mystery..........? Not too sure......

Nope. But it IS a short story.

Got it! It's "Swan Song" from The Golden Ball. I knew which story it was, but I had to look up the title.

:) Yep. Your turn.

"My dear man, why have people come throughout the ages to the necromancer-to the sorcerer-to the witch doctor? Only two reasons really. There are only two things that are wanted badly enough to risk damnation. The love potion or the cup of poison."

It is from one of my all time favorite Christie books and my favorite non-series book, The Pale Horse.

Wow, that was fast. Your turn.

"Strictly speaking, I am only her paid companion, but she has treated me more as though I were a daughter or a niece. She has been extraordinarily kind and, whatever her faults, I should not like to appear to criticize her actions, or-well, to prejudice you against taking up the case."

"The Under Dog" from the The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding collection?

Yes, it is from the short story, The Under Dog, which may I add is a story with a powerful plot and one of my favorites. Your turn. :-)

"He was enslaved body and soul by his new possession. It stood to him for Romance, for Adventure, for all the things that he had longed for and had never had. Tomorrow, he and his mistress would take the road together. They would rush through the keen cold air, leaving the throb and fret of London far behind them - out into the wide, clear spaces..."

Someone? It's a short story... If someone guesses the collection, I will also accept it as a correct answer...

It doesn't ring a bell for me but I'll take a crack at it...The Golden Ball?

Nope... we search an earlier collection which is published in a specific way in UK.

Hold on - actually you are right - the story is published in The Golden Ball in US - the story is The Manhood of Edward Robinson -- in UK it was published in The Listerdale Mystery.

Your turn.

"No, no," said Mr. Poirot. "I do not insult you. I merely ask you all to face the facts. In a house where murder has been committed, every inmate comes in for a certain share of suspicion."